The availability of extrusion billet has become a major concern for North American aluminum extruders. In the last few weeks there has been a stampede of extruders trying to secure additional billet and both primary and secondary billet producers found that they had overbooked. As a consequence of overbooking, most billet producers are delinquent on delivery promises, booked out through the summer, and are increasing spot billet premiums into double digits. One billet producer confided, “I anticipate that we will have our 2011 contracts wrapped up this summer, and that is several months earlier than the 2010 contracts.”
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